Beacon Theatre
2124 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10023
2124 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10023
24 people
favorited this theater
Showing 151 - 159 of 159 comments
In the Early 80’s the 25th anniversary re-release of “Giant” played here with a new print. Like you said there is nothing like seeing a movie in a huge auditorium with a full house. I wish places like the Beacon and Radio City Music Hall would show films on nights the theatre is dark from live shows.
Back in the 80’s the Beacon occasionally showed movies. This is a great house for films with a wonderful screen. I saw Some Like it Hot and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
Blondes was spectacular with that amazing Technicolor. A full house loved it and with that many people enjoying a movie I could only envy those people of years ago in the great downtowns who every week saw these films with almost stadium sized audiences. No wonder people were movie mad and there were so many theaters. It also helped that movies were fun. Not grossly fun, not stupidly fun, and there was only Hitchcock to torment you and that was ok because he was a genius.
In the mid-60’s I went to a special Gloria Swanson evening at the Beacon. The diva herself was on hand to introduce the silent QUEEN KELLY, including outtakes that were in her personal collection. Also shown was her early talkie THE TRESPASSER. What a great and memorable evening in a great and beautiful theatre! I still have photos I took of Swanson.
On two different occasions I was denied a peak into the Beacon’s auditorium. I think both times I got the “song & dance routine” about since the theatre was dark their insurance prohibited anyone prowling around the auditorium. The second time I walked around to the stage door and it was open. The stagehands were setting up for a Billy Idol concert. I gave myself a great tour and before leaving stood on the stage, imagined the applause and gave a couple of bows. I decided an encore wasn’t necessary. The Beacon’s a great theatre and my only regret is that I never saw a movie there
Theater is located on Broadway between 75th and 76th streets. It is well maintained, with all most of the architectural elements intact, however, there are some incredibly large murals over the exit doors on either side of the proscenium that have been obscured by what must be decades of dust and smoke from cigarettes, pipes and self-rolled materials of all origin. I would love to see these restored so that I could discern just exactly what it is they are supposed to depict! A gorgeous theater, nonetheless. The best place in NYC to see a concert, in my humble opinion.
I was a projectionist at The Beacon in the early 70’s and remember having to climb many stairs, past the second balcony, to get to the projection booth.
One of the most beautiful theaters in Manhattan…it had a gorgeous fountain in the lobby with a cupid or nymph. It was Brandt’s Beacon when I was a child.
A great old neighborhood second run house programmed by Brandts when I was a child in the late 50s early 60s – I saw the original That Darn Cat here on a post Music Hall run and now a serious concert theater
Theater was designed by same architect as the Roxy. Since its small rotunda somewhat resembles (greatly reduced scale) the rotunda of the Roxy, theater enthusiasts sometimes refer to it as the “Little Roxy” even though the inside in no way resembles the original Roxy